10 truths: Picking up the pieces...

Ten truths worth telling:

1. That thing you really don't want to do is the one thing you really need to do.
2. All suffering ends.  You'll always pick up the pieces and build a stronger YOU in the aftermath.
3. Honor your impulses - if you don't, the energy builds up inside you and becomes something else you really don't want.
4. The time you spend in indecision changes the circumstances surrounding the things you must choose from.  You may have lost a very good thing by waiting to know if it was good enough to choose.
5. Real love never looks the way you thought it would.  Stop looking for it and starting feeling for it instead.
6. Don't allow someone else to choose for you.  They'll never be right.
7. When you don't feel good, put on your hottest jeans, your biggest earrings and pretend that you feel like a million bucks.  Even if no one else bears witness.
8. Dancing cures all ills, soothes all hearts, rids a mind of worry and translates emotional energy into joy, which is the fuel for the beautiful flow of life.
9. All joys and pains, friends and foes, triumphs and failures are meant to teach you something.  Pay attention - and love the painful moments as much as the blissful ones.  The greatest gifts lie in the darkest corners.
10. Falling in love is always worth it.  Always.  Don't tell yourself the old stories of heartbreak.  Heartbreak is only a memory.  Love is what is real, and it is waiting for you to open the door now.

A tree grows in the concrete.
It knows its odds of growing old are not great.
It cares not if its time is short,
rather it cares only to say "I'm here."
"This shadow is mine."
"I've earned what I've accomplished."
"I grew here to teach you a lesson, and
I'm happy to have had the opportunity to help you grow stronger."

3 ways to release, surrender, let go...

There's too much.  Too much of everything.  And for those of us who are sensitive, we are brimming over, swimming in the overwhelm and in need of release. I wish I had a manual for letting go, but I do not.  It seems that no matter how much I let go of, there's always more.  Some days it feels like a bottomless well... but something deep inside of me knows it is not.

We come here, to these lifetimes, to learn, to love, to lose and to let go.  We know we take nothing with us in the end yet we sure live like we do.  In fact, we take as much as we possibly can.  We hoard it - most of the time without even knowing.  We take all of the joys, all of the pains, all of the bliss and all of the sorrows.  Of course we want only the good things so we soak those up eagerly without cause for thought.  We adamantly reject and detest the bad things though because they feel so awful.  But in refusing and hating the bad, we make it grow bigger inside of us.  We focus so much energy on not wanting the pains of life that we sow such a fertile ground of Not Wanting Bad Stuff that we inadvertently attract more and more of it, over and over.  The law of attraction is real.  We really do get back from the world what we send out and when we are consumed with not wanting more of the bad (when we are neck-deep in the bad), that's all we're asking the universe for... and we get it.

This is where The Art of Letting Go comes in.  I should have a post-doctoral degree in this fine art by now.  I once purchased a book on Letting Go at a used book sale and treated it like my bible.  I carried it with me and read the analogies and thought about them over and over (red flag:  I was hoarding letting go).  I believed that the book Who Moved My Cheese was written for me and I had to own a copy after reading someone else's (yeah, there it is again...).  I needed to know *how* to let go and I wasn't going to stop until I figured it out (spoiler alert:  I don't claim to have figured it out, but I have donated most of my books and I have a few approaches I recommend trying).

Most of the time we know instinctively that we need to let go of things that no longer serve us (the knowing becomes clearer the more times we've faced the challenge of letting go - or, in some cases, when a close friend simply refuses to hear the story once more).  [So, Recommendation #1:  Get a good friend.  And be real honest with said good friend - ask for real honesty in return.  Buy good friend a drink and show up when good friend needs you to do the same.]

We need to let go so that we can focus on what we *do* want in our lives in place of the bad.  But those bad moments can be so insidious that they get stuck inside of us, refueling the automatic delivery system of exactly what we don't want any more of - so we get more bad, over and over, creating a seemingly bottomless well of hard, challenging, painful experiences.  Letting go of the thoughts, energies and (understandable) hatred of the negative stuff in our lives then becomes so challenging that it seems impossible to get out.  We feel as though we can't even remember what the good moments look like anymore.  The typical advice to "think positive" and focus on what we truly want becomes an irritating reminder that David is smaller than Goliath and he can't possibly win.  But what if the art of letting go happens in surrendering to the monster?  Can we love it enough to turn even our darkest moments and deepest worries into parts of ourselves that we can't help but love?

I believe so.

I believe that the brightness of love can shine its loving (and joyful) light precisely in the places we can't seem to escape.  By turning to face the monster and giving it love, we can shine our own light on the thing we want so desperately to let go of.  By loving that which we hate, we take away its power and we have nothing to avoid any longer.  The scary parts become the parts of us that are craving love and tenderness - something we have within us to give and feel much better than when we hate them.

Therefore, Recommendation #2:  Love the bad stuff, all of it, see it as part of yourself - a part that really needs a hug, to be held, to be told it's dream job is coming, it's beautiful and smart and has great hair... you get the point.

And because I'm a big fan of journaling - and writing in general, here's a third suggestion for your letting go journey, for good measure:

Recommendation #3:  Write a letter to God/your higher self/your guides/your angels/the person who hurt you/your future self/Santa Claus and tell him/her/it your deepest secrets, hopes, fears and desires.  Beg, plead, pray, bargain.  It doesn't matter what you say or how you say it, just that you are honest and that you are releasing some of the energy that is wrapped so tightly around what you need to let go of.  Then seal it up, burn it, hide it, shred it, bury it or read it back to yourself and hit delete.  It doesn't matter what you do with it because the message was delivered the moment you wrote it and acknowledged its existence   You've simply empowered your own ability to release (i.e. leg go) in the simplest of forms.  After all, it's all energy.  The fears, the hopes, the intentions, the messages in your letters, the worries you carry - all of it is just energy.  Release any small amount of that energy you no longer want and you will feel freer to start asking for and attracting what you do want.

I honor your strength, courage and determination in the battle of letting go.  ...And I have no idea who would own a necklace that says "let go" - not a clue.

The un-shared ideas of quiet souls...

I've realized, over a recent period of self-directed disconnection from most of the stimulus happening in our world that so many people matter whose names we will never know and and so many solutions to problems in our world exist that will never be brought to light.  These inspired ideas and peaceful solutions won't even be brought to a level of consciousness other than that of the mind that thought it.

I've realized that our thinking, hurting, angry, over-communicative, over-stimulated and frustrated minds are so full that the quiet space needed for the gentle souls among us and peaceful solutions contained within them have nearly no place in our world right now... but it is precisely those souls and those ideas that are so needed.

The news bombards us.  The talking heads talk.  The angry politicians act without thought and fight without concern.  The egos are bigger than ever.  Acting on impulse, from anger and without thought - it's everywhere.  The injustice is ripe and rotting in our own front lawns but we can't seem to clean it up.  We can't seem to even call attention to it anymore because it is everywhere.  In fact, the stories that seem to capture and hold our attention are those rare stories of change and hope in the world - those are the ones that stand out from the rest.  Those are the stories we are truly seeking, but our pre-programmed and muddled minds always seek more and more stimulation and ultimately they forget the story of hope.  They turn back to the terror, the fear, the desolate reality of a world gone wrong.  We swim in it.  We are desperate for change and peace but we can't find it.  Too much gets in the way five minutes later.  The hope which seemed so palatable is once again gone and we are left seeking, knowing it is somewhere in the chaos of the rotten injustice.

The hope must be held on to.

Those of us with the hope, the ideas, the solutions, the programs, the generous hearts... we must dig deep and find all the courage we can possibly find to speak aloud those truths which we know can change the tides in our world.  It's hard, doing such a thing, because it requires strength and courage that come from a place which requires a loving fuel to keep us going... but such loving, hopeful energy is so hard to find right now.  Yet still we must try.

And keep trying because that's why we are here.

Just remember that when all of the noise and chaos around us becomes deafening, it is in that space that we can be heard.  We carry the story of hope so many are seeking - and the courage to do the work.  There will be times when we - when you - will need to be your own fuel.  When attentions wander and people forget that your ideas, your courage, your work of change are indeed valuable and are indeed changing the world, you must become your own fuel.  It was in the very same space of great pain and injustice in the world that the quiet and humble teachers throughout human history - Jesus, Gandhi, Buddha - walked quietly through the hells that surrounded them to tell their stories of Love, Peace and Hope.  Those teachers became leaders, those leaders became prophets and those prophets became spirits who guide us still today.  Call on them in your time of great need, but remember that you too contain the same courage they had.  You have the same kind of thoughts, the same space for hope, the same earthly body and the same calling to "be the change you wish to see in the world." (Gandhi)

You may be one of us, you may be that peaceful teacher and I tell you now that I  hear you... and you are not alone.  For it is in the time of great imbalance that true balance can be found.  It is in our destitution that we can so clearly see what hope looks like.  And it is in a world that appears devoid of love for our fellow human that we can recognize instantly what love looks like.  While many may become distracted and forget that they've seen the love, somewhere deep inside them their soul remembers what it looks like and they will keep seeking it.  Stand firm in the love and peace you bring to the world and those seeking it will find you.  God's plan is greater than any of ours and he has sent us to remind the world of that.

Be strong.  Be faithful.  Be courage itself.  Be what you were meant to be.

Eye of God

It takes Courage...

Courage is found deep within us, in a place we can't name or recognize - nor do we even believe it exists sometimes.  It can sometimes be seen by others but rarely do we see it in ourselves.  How do we find it then when we need it most?  How do we gather it up and put it to work lifting us up, moving us forward or getting us out?  Not a simple question to answer and not an easy thing to do.

Too often there are situations, adversaries or individuals who would like for us to stay precisely where we are, keeping us from growing or living our truth.  We've all experienced it.  All the "isms" in society, all the ways people are discouraged, all the moments we didn't stand up when we felt we should have - they are all part of a system of oppression that exists in so many shapes and forms around us all.  That these systems exist at all calls us all to stand up and overcome them as individuals and members of the greater human family.  So many people throughout history have lacked the courage and turned a blind eye or participated in the oppression themselves out of fear of becoming oppressed themselves.

Individuals throughout our human story have subscribed to the notion of "if you can't fight 'em, join 'em" and it has caused so much suffering in the world and delayed so much healing.  When an individual acts from a place of fear, he strengthens the oppressive systems that must be challenged and overcome.  When an individual acts from love, employing courage from his own heart, then the world can be changed and humanity can begin to heal.  Because these acts of courage are often taken by individuals, they can feel quite lonely and isolated but rest assured, so many are watching.  So many are aware and so many are looking for those who can lead the way.  This solitude in courage makes having it all the harder to muster but all the more important to find, employ and act from.

Courage is living according to your own truth, standing up for what you know is right and staying true to your unique path.  Since we all have different paths in life, only the Self can recognize the need for courage and then have the strength to make the move that must be made.  Others may tell us what needs to be done and their motives can range from pure love and concern to manipulation and power but only the Self can employ true courage and make the change, take the step or leave the situation.

No one else will ever tell you to become who you are.  No one else can help you become who you are meant to be.  Most people won't even bother to help another grow into who she is meant to be.  It's because of all of this that courage is one of those traits we most admire in one another.  We revel in the stories of those who overcame the greatest odds.  The stories that show us examples of humans living to their fullest human potential.  We need these stories so much that they become the lore that propels us to find our own truths and to fight for justice.  If courage weren't hard to gather within ourselves, we wouldn't retell stories of Joan of Arc and Jesus and Ghandi.  We wouldn't read books about heroes and we wouldn't define our history by a series of wrongs that have been righted and individuals who have done the impossible.

What is quite possibly the greatest thing in the story of Courage in our world is that once one person has found the courage to do what is best, right, good and honorable, we realize that we all benefit from that one individual's inner strength.  The story of human courage is as permeating as stories of long-lost loves found and deserving people who win in the end.  The difference is that while we all may not have long-lost loves to find or babies to save, we all have a truth to live and doing so takes courage - courage that is within us at all times.

Getting to that courage is something only some people do, but I believe we can all find it.  It's just a matter of believing in ourselves, digging deep and then standing up for something true in ourselves.  That truth, as long as it is based in love, is greatly needed in the world.

Stand - and act - from your courage.  Become who you are truly meant to be.  We all need each others' greatest Selves in order to heal so much in the world.  It's why we are here.  And we're all here for each other.

Look for what is yours....

Boy, was I right when I last wrote about moving at the speed of life.  Moments for me to sit down and write my inspirations here for you to read have been hard to find - but they fill me with love and they are a gift I have to give so I know the opportunities and inspiration will continue to find time, even as life moves faster and faster.

Everything is speeding up.  Everything is happening so fast.  Whether it feels like things are falling together or falling apart, life is moving so fast - for all of us.  Things are coming into your life that are uniquely yours - be open to them, accept them and most importantly, use them, and use them for Good.

Even the most beautiful things in the world require maintenance, cleaning, airing out, protection and repair.  You are among those most beautiful things in the world and right now, you, too, are experiencing a cleaning out and a rebuilding of old parts that were broken or new parts that have yet to be built.  This will happen in very unexpected ways in unexpected places - or sometimes your growth will happen in the simplest and most mundane of ways - ways you won't even notice until you realize you've grown and released something you used to hold onto so tightly.

Whether you can see your healing, your gift, your challenge or the maintenance you are currently undergoing or not is up to you.  Take a step back.  Breathe.  Meditate.  Pay attention.  What do you feel?  What are you resisting?  What are you ignoring?  What are you fighting doing?  What has God given you that is precisely yours?  Step into it, face it, own it, embrace it, love it.  The journey will carry you along but it will continue to present you with those things of yours that are designed to raise you into your higher and greater self.  Think of this time in life as an opportunity to raise your own inner child into the person he or she is capable of being - into who she is destined and divined to be.  I encourage you to look for the signposts along the way and step fully into your own divine path.  Allow yourself to transform, heal what causes you pain and release the things (and people) that keep you stuck where you no longer belong.

The path is yours, go ahead, embark on it.  It may not be paved, it may be dark and scary at times but it is your path and yours alone.  It is said that a leader walks a narrow path.  No one else will pave your way, save for you.  Go ahead, look for it and then take it where you are meant to go.

Flip your perspective...

It's so easy to get stuck.  Really stuck.  In our thinking, in our worries, in our ideas.  Even in the good things, we can get stuck - but those are easier to navigate.  It's when we get so deeply lodged in our own fears that it is critical to flip our thinking.  The only way out, I've found, is to imagine - and keep imagining - the exact opposite of our current situation.  That's when you get leverage from the universal law that says that what you think about expands, what you focus on, you attract more of and what you give your attention to, you manifest.

It is easy to understand then - in understanding this universal law of expansion - that by focusing more and more on the bad stuff or the suffering in your life, more of that exact situation is created, digging a deeper and deeper rut until you feel so incredibly stuck that you forget how to look for a way out of it.

Flipping your perspective, by creating a situation that is so completely opposite from the stuck place you may find yourself in allows you to start creating the space you want to be in rather than the one you don't want to be in.  The more you think about the place you want to be, and the more colors you use to paint that picture and the more details and emotions you attach to what you want, the more you open that magical, mystical vortex that allows you to create what you want in your life - and, at the same time, you will be moving away from that place of stuck-ness that you so desperately want to get out of.

I'm a big fan of fake it 'til you make it - that's the what.  The how is by flipping your stuck situation and focusing on where you want to be rather than where you are.  Your mind is a very loyal and reliable employee of yours.  It works around the clock without judgement or argument and it will gladly respond to what you think about by creating a stronger and stronger thought pattern to solidify and: (this is your choice, not your mind's) either further entrench you in what you don't want or to create a whole new attitude and way of thinking about what you do want.  In turn, the cells of your body (another hardworking doobie on your team) will respond in kind by making you feel either sicker, sadder and more stuck, or if you just choose to flip your thinking, your body will respond to make you feel healthier, stronger and more free to create what you want.

So if you're feeling stuck, just try it.  Imagine the opposite situation from the one you are in.  There are endless different perspectives you can have so go ahead and just start creating.  Make your new perspecive as fancy and wonderful as you possibly can, meditate on it and watch what develops in your life.  Remember that all of your employees (mind, body and universe), will respond to create for you so be careful what you wish for...!  Just be sure to keep it up.  Rome wasn't built in a day, you know.

The spiral of life...

Life is a dance of dichotomies.  The pairing of love and loss, challenge and triumph, joy and pain accompanies us all along the journey. As long as we take time to reflect and seek the divine lessons in our challenges, then we are on the right path. When we step back and see this magical system for what it is, we can then find gratitude for all of the bliss and suffering of life.

Keep praying, keep praying....

None of it has gone away.  None of it has gotten better.  None of us are immune.

Japan, Haiti, Gaddafi, Eman Al-Obeidy, Lebanon, war, famine, fear, pain and inequity - it is all over the world.  It's all still happening.  As you struggle with your own pain, fear and disappointments, remember at least for this moment that there are millions and millions of us living in horror and desperation.

Please don't forget.  But please don't dwell in the sadness.  There is power in our emotions.  Our job, if we have the strength (and every single one of us should have at least that), is to send love and hope and prayer to all who suffer in the world and to do what we can to end suffering in any way possible.  Whatever it may be.  Wherever it may be.  We are all one and we grow closer every day.  We are closer to the Japanese than we were one month ago when the earthquake hit, even if we have forgotten amidst the busyness of our daily lives.

Keep praying.  Keep giving.  Keep loving.

Knowing it to be true...

Have you ever had a gut instinct that proved to be right?  A feeling about someone or about a situation that was exactly what you thought when the truth came out?  Have you ever felt that you were inexplicably familiar with someone despite only just having met them?

These are all examples of the Spirit being alive in us and actively working with us... and evidence that we are fully present in our lives.  When we are open to our own Spirit (or God), this kind of knowing happens for us.  I've learned that when I feel most alive, most comfortable and most in the flow in my own life with someone or something, it is a sure sign that I am connected to a deeper knowing within myself.

There's a terrible affliction in humankind - one that keeps us trapped, living life in our heads all the time, trying to make sense of things, or worse, trying to make the world fit into our understanding of it. Too often too many of us forget to let go and let life happen.  And more often than not, people don't even realize that this is happening - that they are living life through their thoughts.  We've created our routines, our sense of right and wrong and our ways of seeing the world but they leave little room for seeing the world anew day after day.  There's so much beyond what we thing we know and see each day but it is so easy to miss it.  We forget, in a way, to get out of our own way.

Being open and letting life happen shows us a much more beautiful reality than one we could have written for ourselves in the first place.

I've practiced this openness to life and awareness of my own intuition for years but it's very easy to fall off the wagon.  Fear of loss, worries about the future, shocking information - it all throws us off balance in an instant.  That delicate and hard won balance is worth paying attention to and maintaining because it allows us to experience life in greater dimension.  It's a combination of living in the moment, listening to (and for) our own intuition, and believing that we are each a unique part of a larger story and that our role is critical to that story's success.  No one else can live our lives for us - we are here to live them fully and intentionally in the starring role.

Apathy toward your own life creates disappointment, lost opportunities, sadness, loss, regret - all terribly undesirable things!  So why not be engaged fully in your own story and fully open to all the story lines and walk-on characters that show up?  Only you can experience and share all those wonderful moments in the story of YOU.  And in that story of you, you are the superstar, the director and the producer - fitting indeed since only YOU can know all there is to know... and know it to be true.

You gotta have faith (ah-faith-ah-faith)...

No, not for the reasons George Michael sang about (though that's good too), but for the purpose of getting through.  It seems that we spend so much of our lives getting through something.  An interview, a breakup, a project, a period of change....  We spend very little time in the static space that must exist between one thing and another.  Between achieving/winning/surviving/overcoming one thing before another pops up in our lives.  That between time is as rare as the half of a day when all of your laundry is clean and there is none in the laundry basket.  It's a small moment, it's there, but it's always quickly replaced by a new and growing pile of laundry to be done.  Again.

Unlike the ever-present chore of doing laundry which is mundane, mindless and entirely nonthreatening (save for the part of you that just doesn't want to do it), our ongoing process of getting through something in life just seems to keep coming in surprising ways.  Sometimes we find ourselves getting through something that crept up on us, completely unexpected.  Sometimes it comes as a shock.  Sometimes it's welcome and lovely and you don't mind it at all.  But life is always a series of one thing after another that we are going through.  Or, as you might say, one thing after another that we are living.

Tonight I'm focused on having faith for the getting through.  I'm not talking about the kind of faith that we call upon when we find ourselves in sudden and desperate communion with God.  Not the impetuous kind of begging for the strength to get through something that happens when we are in crisis or hurt or in survival mode. Rather, the kind of faith we have that allows us to move from one phase of life to another.  From letting go of and moving beyond something we know well and moving into the great unknown of the future - having faith along the way that all will be well and banking on it being better than we can imagine in the present moment.

That kind of faith that we humans manage to have in the getting through-ness of life is the kind of faith that is an intimate conversation between ourselves and the higher power that allows us to get through anything. And I do mean anything.  And as humans, across the great span of human history, we have gotten through so much and most of the time we have done it not realizing just how strong we were while we were going through it.

So here's to having faith... and getting through.

Look for the light in one another & open to your own power...

File this one under "Love and learn from one another - especially the ones you can't imagine loving."

As life gets harder and seems to challenge us more, it seems that for many people, a natural reaction is to turn to a very primal response:  To fight.  So many people, it seems, when they are frightened or confused or feel overwhelmed, look for someone to blame.  Some even simply ascribe the pain they are feeling to someone else.  Yes, someone may be involved in a situation that causes you pain, or someone may oppress you in someway.  Yes, there is pain and fear associated with the things in your life that challenge you.  But when you choose to focus your energy on blame, hatred, drama - or if you even just focus all of your energy on trying to figure out another person's motives or reasoning for doing/being/reacting as they have - you lose your own power.  To choose to be fully in your power, despite the involvement of someone who pushes your buttons, allows you to come into your own strength to deal with and learn from the situation.

I strongly believe that the circumstances that happen in our lives are all opportunities for growth.  And a big divine hint for us all is to notice when the same feelings or similar situations seem to happen "to" us over and over. In fact, they aren't happing to us at all.  They are part of the greater intelligence that is guiding us through our own personal growth and learning.  When we consider that all people in our lives serve as teachers for us, and all events and circumstances are part of a divine curriculum of sorts, then we can see that we are simply being guided through the opportunities to learn just who we are and determine for ourselves how we would like to grow and change.  Everything changes.  All the time.  We, too, are part of that universal law of change but too often we fight it or get distracted by the personalities involved in our stories.

So step back.  Quietly thank those individuals for showing you the opportunity to learn and grow and then focus only on yourself.  Those people involved have illuminated a very important part of your path.  Now it's up to you to recognize that light and use your own to head down the path a little further to a place you have not been.  After all, you and only you are here to live the unique lifetime that is and always will be your own.

When God closes a door...

He really does open a window.  Or another door.  Or eight new doors.  Or sometimes, even, an entirely new building.

I realized recently that I had been looking closely for something in one place for quite sometime.  After years of looking, expecting and hoping for it, I finally accepted that it was never going to happen.  So I let go and gave up the desire for it.  Only after I let it go did something else completely unexpected happen in an entirely new place with entirely new people.

Yes, I'm being vague.  It doesn't matter what it was for me, rather, the important thing is that we all begin to learn the lesson that looking for something is far different from allowing yourself to be open to something.  There are many wise spiritual leaders, metaphysical gurus and none-too-few books that talk about how we attract things to us.  And I've learned, after much studying, reading and listening that they all have pretty much the same thing to say:  We are constantly attracting to us all sorts of things but what the universe (or God) has in store for us is always exactly what we need, be it an opportunity to learn, to grow or to experience something important.  The universe contains such incredible power and works in so many ways we can't possibly measure or understand.  The problem is that we get so attached to what we want (or worse, what we think we need) that we often miss those opened windows, additional doors and brand new opportunities that pop up around us all the time.

Have the courage to stop looking for something in particular and open yourself to all of the wonderful things that life is bringing to you.  They are coming all the time whether you notice them or not.  And don't get attached to what you think the outcome should be.  The actual outcome, once it has come to pass, will be far greater than you could have imagined yourself.  I know, I've witnessed what is behind my own newly opened window after I finally stopped trying to get back into that closed door...

What comes along the way...

The universe brings you exactly what you need for your own personal growth exactly when you need it.
  
It may be a new friend, an opportunity, a mistake, a road block, an insight, a resource, a piece of wisdom or an ah-ha moment.

Whatever you receive is yours and only yours.

Whether challenging or filled with love, it is precisely what you need - and you are exactly where you need to be.